


Winter Diversions

by Benfrosh



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Chess, M/M, explaining chess, i like chess, oh i guess they're also really cute with each other too, teaching chess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 11:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6516223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benfrosh/pseuds/Benfrosh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ike and Soren are trapped inside on a snowy day, and Ike's antsy. Soren proposes a way to pass the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Diversions

Ike looked out the window at the falling snow. Drat, he thought to himself. No chance of getting any reconstruction work done today. The reconstruction campaign across Crimea had been fairly successful to date. It was impossible to ever return things back to how they used to be before the war - too much damage had been done, too many lives lost. But Ike had resolved himself to do what he could, everywhere he went, and it seemed like he was really making a difference. But today? Stuck inside, doing nothing. 

As Ike mournfully gazed out the window, Soren came in carrying two cups of fresh-brewed tea. "Are you okay, Ike? Is something wrong?" Soren asked as he set the two cups down on the table, relaxing into one of the two chairs next to the table. The two were residing in the village's mayor's guest room, using the house as their base of operations for organizing the reconstruction effort. But now, with the snow, everyone had settled in and given up on making much progress. Crimea's snowfalls had always been fairly minimal on the plains, barely lasting longer than a week in the winter season, but the delay had frustrated their plans regardless.

Ike sat down in his chair and took his cup of tea, warming his hands with it. "Just annoyed. Being stuck doing nothing has me all wound up. I wish I could go out there and," Ike swung one of his hands, "chop the snow to death. Or something."

"I think you'll find yourself hard pressed to defeat a force of nature, Ike." Soren took out a book from the bag slung across his shoulders and opened it up to his bookmark. "Just try to relax for now, okay? You can entertain yourself for a few days." 

"You're right, I'll stop being so dour." Ike put down his tea and sat up. "I'm going to go out and exer-"

Without looking up from his book, Soren replied, "No you won't. You'll catch a cold."

"You don't know that," Ike replied indignantly.

"Yes I do."

"... yeah, you're right. Again." Ike sat down with a sigh.

Time passed, as Soren sipped his tea and read his book, and Ike sat in thought. 

Ike's eyes popped open. "I'm going to ask Titania if she wants to practice insi-"

"You're going to break something."

Ike sat back down with a dejected flop. "I'm out of ideas, then."

With a disgruntled sigh, Soren closed his book. "Haven't you been taking up sketching recently? You could practice that more."

"I'm just not in the mood for it today. Too antsy. Need to get some energy out."

Soren closed his eyes in thought. "... We could try to play chess. I think I remember seeing a board around here."

"Huh. You know, I've never actually played chess. Father tried to teach me once, but I was too rambunctious to sit down and actually play."

Soren couldn't come up with a response.

Ike took a deep breath. "It's okay. Let's go find that board."

\---

"Okay, that's the last of the setup." Soren reached up to brush away his hair after leaning over to place the last of Ike's pieces. "How much of the game do you remember, Ike?"

"Honestly, nothing. Let's start from the top."

The two of them had found the board and pieces after some searching. A simple set, the pieces carved out of wood and painted white and black, but obviously well loved - the paint was starting to fleck off a few of the pieces. Ike had asked the mayor if it was okay for them to use it, but he had said it was no problem at all. They decided the best place to play was back in the guest room, and Ike quickly finished off his cooling tea as Soren set up the board.

"So, firstly, the objective of the game is to capture the enemy king, this piece right here." Soren pointed at his and Ike's kings.

"Just killing the leader, huh? Could be worse. At least we actually have an equally matched army for once."

"Probably the most unrealistic part of the game, honestly. I've been considering alternative strategy games with asymmetric forces, but-" Soren shook his head. "Sorry, it's something I've been thinking about. Anyways, the goal is to use your other pieces to set up a position such that the enemy king can't escape. It's called 'checkmate' if your opponent can't do anything to save their king. The game ends there."

"Haul him off for a kangaroo court somewhere."

"The game doesn't go into the political ramifications of the battle, unfortunately."

"For the best. It all always went over my head."

Soren sighed. "You never were going to be a good noble, were you."

"Nope. Been telling people that, but no one would listen."

Soren looked for any sign that Ike was joking. "... Well, each of these pieces move in different ways, to create extra strategy. First, we start with the pawns."

Ike frowned. "That's a little harsh, isn't it?"

Soren paused. "No, Ike, that's actually their name. That's where calling someone a pawn comes from. It's based on the Ancient Language word for foot soldier."

"Huh! Learn something new every day."

"So, pawns have two basic movements. They can either move one step forward," Soren picked up a pawn to demonstrate, "or go diagonally to capture a piece," and he took one of Ike's pawns to capture it.

"... Hmm. That's interesting. So when you capture a piece, it goes down in one hit? And you immediately move into its space?" 

"Yes. All pieces behave like that, for the record."

"So two pawns that ram into each other form the frontline of the battle, and it becomes dangerous for their allies to try to cross, since the other side can smash in, and it's unblocked and can advance on the enemy position now."

"That's the basics of pawn technique, yes. In addition-"

"- you could also have a pawn like this." Ike took another of his pawns and put it diagonally behind his demonstration piece. "And it'd ensure that if anyone took out your lead pawn, you could punish them immediately, restore your position, and continue advancing."

Soren's eyes widened. "You're clearly getting the hang of the ideas."

"I mean, it's not exactly war, but the principles are similar I can kinda see where they're adapting what. So what do these other pieces do?"

"Before that, there's a few weird rules with the pawn I need to mention, upgrades to make them a bit better. Firstly, from the starting position, if you've never moved a pawn before," and Soren moved his pawn back, "you can move them two spaces forward to start." And Soren did so in turn.

"Rushing into battle. Simple enough, to be sure."

"And it doesn't happen every game, but if a pawn reaches the other side of the board, they can promote into any other kind of piece."

"Man, I wish I could promote just by reaching the other side of the battlefield."

Soren sighed. "If only. That's all for pawns for now. Next..." Soren moved to the back rank, and took his rook. "This is the rook, based off the Ancient Language's word for 'cavalier'. It can move in a straight line horizontally or vertically," and Soren moved the piece to demonstrate, "and can't move through other pieces, obviously. And it can capture any piece in that same range."

Now it was Ike's turn to be shocked. "I know cavaliers are good, but this is kind of ridiculous. A foot soldier only moves two spaces with a fullblown charge, and the cavalier just zip zip zooms wherever it wants?"

"I didn't make the rules, Ike."

"Maybe you should've, it would've made more sense. And why is the cavalier a tower?"

"Disambiguation from the next piece. This is the knight," Soren said while picking it up, "and it moves unusually. It jumps two spaces either horizontally or vertically and then one space in the perpindicular direction. Like so," Soren said as he moved it around to demonstrate.

"Wait, knight? This is supposed to represent someone like Gatrie?"

"No, knight as in pegasus knight. It's flying around the battlefield."

"Ohhh. Okay, that's reasonable. And that's why the cavaliers have to look different." Ike paused. "Still doesn't explain why it's a tower, though."

Soren paused. "I actually don't know why a tower, specifically. That's just how it is."

"Oh, well. Guess not everything can make sense."

Soren shook his head. "Okay, one last of the basic pieces. This is the bishop."

"Lemme guess, it brings back captured pieces to the board?"

"No, it moves diagonally in any direction for any distance."

Ike stared at Soren.

"That's just how the rules are, Ike."

"You're messing with me. Has the person who designed this game ever served with a bishop once in their life? I..." Ike grabbed his head with his hands. "Bishops aren't mobile! Bishops are slow! Bishops have long range attacks, sure, but they can't just hecking teleport across the battlefie-" Ike paused, realization in his eyes. "Warp staves! Clearly these bishops have warp staves. I see how it is now. Warp staves must've been much more common when this game was made."

Soren thought about it. "I guess that would explain it, yes. I hadn't considered it."

Ike grinned. "Can't sneak one past me. So that's the king you pointed out earlier, so what's this last piece?"

Soren picked it up. "This is the queen. She can move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, any distance, taking pieces like so."

Ike's eyes widened. "That... is a dang good piece."

"Supposedly it's based on the combat prowess of Altina, the first apostle of Begnion."

"Wish I could've fought with her, if she inspired such an amazing piece. So how does the king move then?"

"The king can move like the queen, but only one space in each direction."

Ike glared. "That is the worst king I've ever heard of. And I have to protect him? What's this terrible king doing leading an army?"

"Well, technically, you're leading the army. The king is someone you're escorting."

Ike sighed. "Not another escort mission. I wish I could just... train the king, or something. Pump him up a little."

"If it makes you feel better, don't think of him as a big, general-like king. Think of him as..." Soren trailed off, staring at the king. "Someone important. Someone you'd lead your army to protect. Someone you'd serve, no matter what. Someone... you'd give your life for, if you had to."

Ike was about to say something in response when he noticed that Soren's eyes were starting to tear up. Instead, he reached out and rubbed Soren's shoulder reassuringly. "Good example. I can think of someone immediately."

Soren looked up from the board and into Ike's welcoming blue eyes. 

Soren took a deep breath. "Thank you, Ike." He smiled.

Ike smiled back. "Always here for you."

Soren wiped his eyes. "As I was about to say, there's one last special rule about the king. If the knight and the bishop have moved out of the way, and the rook hasn't moved yet, the king can hide in the corner like this, and the rook moves over to protect him."

"Simple enough. I'm probably going to forget something, but if that's all I think we can start a game. I'll learn as it goes."

"Sounds like a plan." Soren returned the demonstration pieces to their original places. "You're the white pieces, Ike, so you have the first move."

"Hmm. I think I'll..."


End file.
